


Magnificence

by Broba



Category: Doctor Who, Homestuck
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-22
Updated: 2012-02-22
Packaged: 2017-10-31 14:36:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/345197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broba/pseuds/Broba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As soon as I see a prompt relating to British TV on the kinkmeme, it's like catnip to me- and I'm sure I've mentioned before what a Whovian I am. The prompter wanted to see that knack the Doctor seems to have, of bringing out the "magnificence" in others- hence the title.</p>
<p>I loved the first crossover I did of these fandoms, and the chance to have another crack at it was welcome. I very deliberately left this open to a sequel for the next time an appropriate prompt comes up. Also, for the life of me I cant make coloured text work here! Oh well...</p>
<p>The Doctor encounters a certain Karkat Vantas, and decides to take him on a little trip...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The worst thing, mused Karkat Vantas, about being trapped on an asteroid with the closest friends he had ever known, was that it pointed out in such stark relief exactly what a bunch of retarded shitmounds they truly were. He could have carved more useful associates out of a pile of sticks. The latest trolling session had devolved into severe bickering and fucking nonsense as usual. Tavros had become upset at something the ridiculous Dave human had said at him in rhyme, for some reason, Gamzee had offered a few words of comfort which naturally was all it took to set Vriska off on a hate bender that would no doubt waste another day of their precious and very limited time. Karkat had slipped out, he was sick of trying to hammer some kind of sense into these morons.

He slouched off towards his quarters, such as they were. The lighting was always dim and the sopor was always lukewarm, it was at least some small comfort though he was finding it harder and harder to concentrate and the slime wasn't helping much any more. He had a horrible feeling that something was coming, and he hadn't been sleeping well. It was no surprise then that he collided face first with the fucking box.

It was made of wood, of all things, and enormous. It was far too large to have been dragged through the narrow doorway into his quarters, too heavy for anyone to have moved it except, perhaps, Equius or Gamzee. He knew for a fact that both of them were back with the other trolls though, and had been since he had woken up. He got a feverish little chill at the back of his neck, there was simply no logical reason why this thing should be in his room and yet it had a certain, very boxy, solidity that seemed to suggest that it had always been there. The very idea that the thing had not been rooted to that particular location for a very long time simply slid off it's blue surface like water off a quackbeast.

Around the corner of it, a door opened with a wooden creak and a human walked out, Karkat thought he could recognise the species well enough, it reminded him vaguely of John's human-lusus. It turned and saw him, and showed its rows of blunted human teeth, it towered twice as tall as Karkat or more and said, remarkably in perfect Alternian, "Hello little fellow, who let you out on your own?"

The Doctor walked out of the TARDIS after Rory, and immediately saw the human patronising what appeared to be a juvenile Alternian. He glanced around the room they had arrived in, taking in details in an instant that leapt out at him. A receptacle with a dribble of slime around the edges, a pile of grey boxes to relax in, they looked like DVD cases if he wasn't mistaken. A desk and terminal with a chair- they were in the Alternian's lair. He gently tapped his companion on the back.  
"Rory, I want you to very slowly walk away backwards while looking as apologetic as you can,"  
"Why, what is it? Is there something there?"  
"You're looking at it Rory, that's an Alternian troll, a notoriously aggressive species and they really, really, don't like it when people wander into their bedrooms unannounced."  
"I thought there was no such thing as trolls? And he's only little, he's just standing there looking at me."  
"I think he's actually paralysed with rage, Rory, and I'd step back quite quickly because they do have these rather nasty claws-"

Karkat screeched and slashed at the human with his claws- indeed they were rather nasty. The human recoiled, and on his arm a quadruple set of livid red slashes appeared, to Karkat's immediate horror and clenching shame. Red blood! The horrible red blood of a mutant! His personal space had been invaded by rampaging aliens and he didn't even rate an invader any better then himself. Karkat began to work himself up into a fury. The taller human with the gangling limbs and the ridiculous flouncy neck decoration grabbed the Rory-human and hauled him back into the box. Karkat was having none of it and leapt for them, his natural troll instinct to preserve his hive flooded his body with adrenaline-equivalent and he could barely see past the red- red!- mist that had descended.

Karkat awoke- he hadn't been aware of falling unconscious. He was resting on his back, on a hard surface, which was comforting. The air was warm but had an unfamiliar smell of dust and electricity that aggrieved him. His eyes were bleary, but he could see above him an expanse of glimmering orange studded with hexagonal shapes. As things came into focus he became aware of a heaving, whirring sound that permeated the entire place. He knew immediately that nothing and no-one on the asteroid made that noise. He sat up and stared, three humans were watching him.

The one that he had clawed at was nursing his bandaged arm, and staring at him ruefully. Beside him was another human, with vivid orange-red hair, a female. She was glaring at him and wielding a wooden club-like instrument, no doubt a fearful device of bone-breaking torture.  
"Who hit me?" He struggled to his elbows, "who fucking HIT me?"  
"You clawed up my husband!" The female raised her club threateningly, "yer lucky to still have a head!"  
Karkat made a noise in his throat, "keep your pets on a leash then,"  
"Hey!" They both said it at once, although he noted that the female raised an eyebrow and the male gave her a slightly worried look.  
"I'm not," said Rory, feeling ridiculous as he said it, "a pet."

The third one loped around from behind a massive circular console that dominated the entire area, the entire room seemed to be centred on it. He had wide, blunt looking features and ridiculously floppy hair that Karkat immediately despised.  
"Of course you're not Rory," he patted Rory on the shoulder affectionately, "there's a good lad. Now Amy, why not put down the rolling pin. Our troll friend here doesn't appreciate the concept of husbands. Interesting fact-" he waved his hands to illustrate as he launched into a lecture, "the Alternian trolls have a rather splendid four-way system of emotional attachment, the nearest equivalent to you and Rory would be what he might term Matesprits."  
"That sounds stupid," pouted Amy, lowering her rolling pin a little, "and I'll still be keeping an eye on him."  
"He's looking at me," said Rory, pointing at Karkat, "why is he looking at me like that?"  
"Because!" Said the Doctor, "you're pointing at him and asking why he's looking at you of course!"

The man launched himself off the raised platform the central console was mounted into and squatted in front of Karkat, his nose looming in the troll's vision alarmingly.  
"I'm the Doctor," he said, "and I'm very pleased to meet you, I'm sorry it all went a little funny there for a moment, very understandable, strange people in a box appearing out of nowhere, I imagine it's not the sort of thing you see every day but believe me," he grinned, "you get used to it. Or so I'm told. I wouldn't really know what it's like," he turned to Amy and hissed, "what is it like?"  
"Confusing," she said flatly.  
"FUCK," announced Karkat, "fuck YOU," he pointed at the Doctor, "and both of YOU," he indicated the others, "I don't need this right now, do you have any idea how busy I am? Where the fuck even is this? And why isn't it cleaner?"  
The Doctor coughed and straightened up, "that's the other thing Alternians are famous for, their delightful expressiveness."  
"Where am I?"  
"You're inside the box."  
Karkat looked around and raised an eyebrow.  
"I know," grinned the Doctor.

The concept of a dimensionally transcendent zone was actually not too difficult to explain to Karkat. He was used to transportalizers and alchemizers, the TARDIS was impressive but he maintained his composure. He was leaning over the console, glaring accusingly at the random-seeming assortment of controls from different eras and equipment as if he were being personally insulted.  
"This is fucking retarded," he announced, "if I had the ability to travel to any point in the universe through the application of a technology both mysterious and ridiculous, and had before me the panoply of existence as a banquet from which to sample, then I can tell you there's one or two places I wouldn't put in my top fucking ten destination list and a miserable freezing rock rolling in the middle of infinite bullshit is fucking one of them!"  
"Is he always going to talk like that?" Whispered Amy to the Doctor, nearby.  
"I think so, yes."  
"Look, Doctor, just drop him off somewhere and let's go. He reminds me of Glasgow. I mean, the entire city, all at once."  
"Amy," he touched her arm and looked at her, "you know why we came here in the first place. Why not see to Rory, I think he's still upset about the clawing."

The Doctor sauntered over to the console, leaning over opposite Karkat's position, and smiled. "Hello."  
"Fuck."  
"I suppose you're wondering why you're here?"  
"This is obviously some ploy to extend the length of my descent into despair and horror by being as sickeningly nice as you can before getting out the knives, and you can fucking forget it! I'm not playing your twisted mind-fuckery games!"  
"You still haven't told me your name,"  
"Neither have you, unless your parents looked down on their sleeping newborn and thought that an appropriate first name to sum it up was 'The.'"  
"That's a good point, and I won't argue with it, it's just that we were looking for someone and I was hoping you might help. I thought that if you were the one in my hive, it might be easier on you then seeing us wander all about yours."  
"Actually, I think I'd prefer the knives," Karkat paused, playing back what he had just heard in his mind, "you were looking for someone?"  
"Yes,"  
"On an abandoned laboratory station that is supposed to be deserted?"  
"Yes,"  
"Where, and I can't stress this enough, there would normally be nobody."  
"That's right."  
"I am in the presence of a fucking god-like intellect, I see that now. Regard me fondly."  
The Doctor smiled a little, and produced a folded sheet of paper, which looked (if Karkat would even have recognised such a thing) like an eighties dot-matrix printout, complete with the alternating green lines and spoke holes along the edges. He unfolded it and cleared his throat dramatically.  
"Yes," he said, "I'm looking for someone who goes by the name of Carcinogeneticist."  
"And why would you be looking for that retard," asked Karkat, his mouth and throat suddenly dry.  
"Because," replied the Doctor, "he asked me to."  
"Let me see that!"  
The Doctor neatly folded the paper and tucked it away, "oh no, not yet."

\-- carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling **legsEleven [LE]** \--  
CG: I KNOW IT'S YOU, YOU FUCK, ANSWER ME.  
CG: I WILL GIVE YOU THE LONGEST AND HARDEST TROLLING YOU HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED IN ALL YOUR LIFE. CRY ME A RIVER AND FLOAT A SHITBARGE ON IT YOU FUCK.  
CG: AND YOUR CHOICE OF NECK RETAINING COLLAR DEVICE IS RIDICULOUS.  
 **LE: hey! bow ties are cool**  
CG: ABOUT FUCKING TIME. I HAVE SO MANY THINGS I SHOULD BE DOING RIGHT NOW. I REALLY DON'T HAVE THE INFINITE RESERVES OF PATIENCE THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED TO PUT UP WITH EVEN ONE IOTA OF A FRAGMENT OF YOUR HOOFBEASTSHIT RIGHT NOW.  
CG: SO DON'T EVEN START WITH YOUR USUAL NONSENSE.  
CG: I WANT THAT TO BE UNDERSTOOD FROM THE START.  
 **LE: you sound like you know me already**  
CG: ALRIGHT SCREW YOUR THINK PAN DOWN TIGHT BECAUSE WHAT I AM ABOUT TO TELL YOU WILL COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY CRUSH YOUR REASON NODULES. YOU MIGHT WANT TO SIT DOWN AND TAKE A DEEP BREATH.  
CG: I AM SPEAKING TO YOU FROM YOUR FUTURE.  
 **LE: ah, that would explain it then**  
CG: PERHAPS YOU MISREAD MY COMMENT, OR ELSE I AM INSINUATING CONCEPTS BEYOND YOUR NARROW GRASP. I AM SPEAKING TO YOU LITERALLY FROM YOUR ACTUAL FUTURE.  
 **LE: why don't we start from the assumption that I can handle the idea without getting too upset**  
CG: I'LL TRY TO GO EASY ON YOU.  
CG: AND RESTRAIN THE NATURAL URGE TO SCREAM.  
CG: IN THE FUTURE, BY WHICH I MEAN LATER IN YOUR PERSONAL TEMPORAL PERSPECTIVE THAN WHAT YOU CONSIDER TO BE THE CURRENT MOMENT, WE WILL MEET.  
 **LE: you mean you're talking to me from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint  
LE: that might be considered  
LE: timey wimey**  
CE: I HATE YOU.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Karkat seethed impatiently, but the Doctor was clear that he wouldn't be showing Karkat the mysterious bit of paper, at least not yet. All he said about that was, "I have my reasons."  
"That doesn't explain why you pulled me into this fucking box."  
"I told you, we're looking for someone and things were getting a little bit too heated in your hive."  
"You know it's me, right? Carcinogeneticist is my trollhandle, let's just get that out of the way and avoid prancing around the issue like fucking bull-lusii doing a magical little dance."  
The Doctor grinned and ran a hand through his hair, "yes all right, I had a pretty good idea."  
"So. You're looking for me. What the fuck do you want, or can I get back to failing miserably at leading my retarded nooksniffing group of, and I'm aware I said it twice, total retards to their inevitable demise?"  
The Doctor laid his hands on the console and leaned forwards slightly, giving Karkat an strangely piercing look as though he had been waiting for this moment patiently, "assume that time isn't an issue, for right now. No matter what happens here or where we go, I can bring you right back to the moment we left and you can pick up where you were. In the mean time, we can go anywhere you can think of, and at any moment in time, where would you like to go?"  
"Anywhere?"  
"And at any time."  
Karkat sucked on his teeth and mused over the point. "And we'll go wherever I say we go?"  
"Well why not? Might be interesting."  
Karkat sighed. "Right now, I'd settle for just going back home, and settling into a warm recuperacoon before any of this idiocy."  
"Aha! A taste of home! Romantic, perhaps, but fully understandable!" He was already working controls and changing settings, and the TARDIS began to thrum with effort as they moved, "very understandable," the Doctor muttered, "I think I'd make the same choice myself in your position."  
"You are in my position! It's your box, go where you fucking want!"  
"I can't go where I want," replied the Doctor, concentrating on the controls intently, "not any more. Ah! Here we are, Alternia, pre-cataclysm, and I think I picked a relatively quiet point in history."

As the Alternian sun was just setting below the horizon, casting an orange glow around long shadows, the TARDIS materialised in an open patch of lawnring beside an enormous and highly ornate hive, it was punctured with elaborate windows at every level, and bore an enormous stone balcony supported by columns. The lawnring itself was on the apron of the balcony, and as the group disembarked Karkat looked up with a low whistle.  
"You weren't fucking around, this really looks like Alternia."  
"It is Alternia," replied the Doctor, "Several centuries before we left, as a matter of fact. The cultural life of the Alternians goes very quiet all of a sudden at this time, and there is a long period of silence from the planet. All very peaceful."  
"Doctor," Amy was already leaning on the parapet looking out into the distance.  
"Alternia! Seat of the great troll empire, centre of troll learning and culture. Did you know, this planet has existed practically since the beginning of the universe? Thanks to a highly unlikely and very selective set of circumstances, Alternia-"  
"Doctor!" Amy snapped, "I think I know why the planet is so quiet from now on."  
"Yes I always meant to look into that myself but you know how it is-"  
"Doctor, everyone's leaving!"  
"What?"

They all went to the parapet at the edge of the balcony and looked out, and it was true. All around them stretching off into the far horizon, great rounded shapes, looming like great beetles rising in the sky, were lifting off in the distance. They were too far away to make more then a low rumble in the background, but they must have been enormous. Huge gouts of smoke and ask clotted the air beneath them as they went up, and up. Karkat stared agog at the exodus.  
"How long ago did you take us?" He whispered.  
"Centuries," replied the Doctor, "not too many though."  
"This is the great departure! All of the adult trolls have been ordered out into the universe to spread the empire. I remember reading about it, something to do with the empress being fucking pissed about something."  
"Well then!" The Doctor clapped his hands merrily, "in that case we have the place to ourselves! Come along!" He loped away towards the interior of the hive, with childlike enthusiasm. The two humans followed with a little more wariness, and Karkat just slouched after, muttering bitterly to himself. All this was giving him a very bad feeling.

The hive was far more open then Karkat was used to, if it hadn't been for the precious metals and luxurious carvings on every single surface it would have struck him as being more like a public area then a secure dwelling. It gave him an itch up and down his back to be in a place so obviously not intended to be closed in and well defended. He bit down an urge to find something to bury himself under. They came to a room dominated by a wide square pool, filled with gently lapping sopor slime. The only illumination came from within the poor, casting the room in a dark eerie aspect with writing lines of light cast by the surface crawling over every wall. Karkat had never seen anything like it, a recuperacoon was supposed to be secure, above all, and preferably tight. This was almost obscenely exposed. He hesitated, and Rory nearly ran into the back of him.  
"What is it?" he asked the troll, "is something wrong?"  
"This is all wrong," hissed Karkat, "it's all so..." he waved a hand vaguely. Trolls had no concept of agoraphobia since it was considered entirely normal to experience it all the time, "...opened up?"  
"Well yeah, things are bound to be different. It's a different time."  
"Whoever lives here clearly doesn't give a shit about anything."  
"Yeah," Rory moved past him muttering, "but they're obviously not here any more."  
"I guess."  
The Doctor was looking over the walls with a gleeful relish, and Amy was following behind him glancing about. He was fascinated by the pictorial history presented all around them.  
"You wanted a place to rest, I'd say this is restful!" The Doctor cackled and rubbed his hands, "now then, I'm going to just have a quick look around. Our young nameless friend here can take a bit of a snooze, so you two should stay nearby just to keep an eye open."  
Amy pouted, "hey wait a minute! Where are you going?"  
"Nosey! I'm just going to check on a few things."  
"Then I'm coming too!"  
The Doctor rolled his eyes but nodded, "Rory! You're in charge, hold down the fort and all that!" And they were off.  
"Yeah I'll just-" Rory sighed and clucked his tongue, "I'll watch the TARDIS, then."  
Karkat sniggered, but he was already stripped down to his troll skivvies and slipping into the delicious embrace of the slime. If they were going to kill him anyway, he reasoned, he might as well glean some small fragment of enjoyment out of the whole rotten affair. It was far richer and more potent then he remembered, this truly was the lap of luxury and he groaned in sleepy pleasure, "yes human, you just guard the box."  
"Story of my life," he muttered, and went to find a chair or something.

Karkat drifted into a deeper slumber then he had enjoyed in longer then he cared to remember. When the inevitable nightmares came the slime muted them excellently to a dull roar in the background, and he was able to relax at last.

Until he was dragged bodily from the slime, spluttering and chittering wildly in a somnolent fury.  
"The FUCK?!"  
Rory had waded in hip-deep and was dragging Karkat out, wrapping his arms under the furious troll's armpits and dragging him bodily, "calm down! Watch the claws!"  
Karkat struggled bitterly until he was ejected from the pool by Rory, hacking and coughing roughly for breath. Rory struggled to pull his weight out of the slime, rolling over into his back beside the pool lip. "You," he gasped for breath, "started yelling in your sleep, you looked like you were drowning!"  
"Fuck! Of course I was! It was just a nightmare!"  
"Why are you so angry? I just helped you!"  
"Helped me?" Karkat stomped over to Rory, who sat up. They were then eye to baleful eye, "the nightmares are NORMAL! Humans!" He wiped his hand across his glistening, slimy face, "why can't you just fucking GET it once in a while!"  
"Why do you always have nightmares?" Rory was nonplussed and finding it a little hard to focus on the concentrated rage spasm happening in front of him.  
"Because! That's what happens! Or at least if would be if you could just fucking leave well enough alone and stop ruining my life in every tiny little way you can manage!"  
"Uh, sorry."  
"Oh, oh you're sorry? Well then allow me to take a moment to rethink my plans because I was fully intending to spend the rest of my natural existence contemplating ways of explaining to you exactly how much I fucking loathe every wretched atom of your being, I was going to write epics. They were going to rhyme, you fuck, but now it turns out you're sorry so why don't I just sit my ass down and just plan out some other way to waste the rest of my boring miserable time alive because you're SORRY."  
Rory pulled himself to his feet, easily towering over Karkat, "listen short-arse, I've just about had it with you!" His fists were already balled, but he forced himself to relax. Despite everything, he recognised that he was dealing with an angry and confused... person. His nurse training took over, and he adopted a professionally composed expression. "I said, I'm sorry, and I am. That's all there is to it."  
Karkat flinched, he had fully expected to be hit, and the human could probably overpower him if it wanted to. He looked up at Rory and realised that he was being firmly, but politely, dismissed by the human. "Where's the Doctor," he hissed, "let's just get out of this fucking place."  
"I don't know. He's wandered off again. With Amy. I expect they've already got themselves into some kind of adventure by now, they'll be back when they need something."

Rory sat down in a cool stone bench by the wall and stared blankly ahead. Karkat huffed and sat down on the other end of the bench, to wait for the slime to dry off naturally as was the tradition.

They both stared straight ahead, uncomfortable in the silence. Rory swallowed, Karkat gave a little cough.

"They'll probably be back soon," Karkat muttered, rubbing at his nose and looking away to the side.  
"I expect so, not that anyone would bother telling me their plans, anyway."  
"Don't expect any sympathy human, I've just been clubbed unconscious, kidnapped by brutal alien scum and I can't even get a good day's rest. And this has actually been one of the more relaxing periods in my life, compared to recent events, so don't come whining to me I've got problems of my own like you wouldn't believe."  
"I sat outside a box for two thousand years to make sure nothing happened to Amy."  
"That's..." Karkat made a face, "that's actually pretty fucked up."  
"Mmm."  
"So did anything happen to her? While you were waiting?"  
"Not really, I think."  
"Ah."

Rory sighed and shifted position, staring off into the distance through the yawning doorway the Doctor had ran down. By now the sun was completely gone outside, and there was no illumination in the room except for the pool. Karkat glanced up at him and made a chittering sound in his throat.  
"What," Rory said.  
"Why are you so worked up about what the female human gets up to? She'll be fine, the Doctor is with her."  
"Yeah. Like always."  
"So what? They're Moirails."  
Rory frowned and looked at him, "what?"  
"Well it's pretty obvious."  
"What does that word mean?"  
Karkat rolled his eyes and groaned, "pay attention, it's like this..."

Away in another corner of the hive, Amy was amusing herself running through a wardrobe of alien clothing. Everything was in black, but with vividly colourful piping. She held up a black shift dress with vertical green lines up against her chest and span around to the Doctor.  
"What do you think?"  
"Very nice," he was busy examining some obscure twisted artefact of looping whorls of chitin.  
"You're not even looking! Eh, men." She went through a few more items in the wardrobe, "what are you even looking for? Doctor?" He was absorbed. She through a sock at his head.  
"Mm? Oh, well nothing really," the Doctor gingerly removed the sock from on top of his head and set it to one side, "just wasting time."  
"Wasting time? Isn't that against the Time Lord code or something?"  
"Not at all, most of the code is actually concerned with appropriate robe length and the correct use of obscenely high collars."  
"What, really? I was just making that up."  
The Doctor grinned, and winked at her. He unfolded his printout and glanced over it for good measure, settling back in a chair and putting his feet up on the desk.

\-- carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling **legsEleven [LE]** \--   
CG: PAY ATTENTION FUCKASS, THIS IS IMPORTANT.   
** LE: I always pay attention  
LE: thats the one thing people always say about me, that I am always paying attention to what's going on **   
CG: YEAH, WE HAVE MET, REMEMBER?   
** LE: ah, good point, well I promise I am at least not doing too many other things at once **   
CG: I WANTED TO TELL YOU A FEW THINGS THAT I SHOULD HAVE SAID BEFORE BUT I DIDN'T. BECAUSE PAST ME IS JUST A FUCKING DOUCHENOZZLE. NOT THAT I CAN ENTIRELY BLAME ME FOR HAVING DIFFICULTY IN SEEING PAST THE GENERAL RETARDED-FIELD YOU SEEM TO SURROUND YOURSELF WITH.   
**LE: go right ahead, I am all ears**   
CG: OKAY, WHEN YOU ASKED ME WHERE I WANTED TO GO, I PRETTY MUCH JUST SAID THE FIRST THING THAT CAME INTO MY MIND, BUT IT TURNED OUT TO BE A PRETTY GOOD IDEA DESPITE ALL THE HORRIBLE SHIT THAT HAPPENED.   
** LE: careful, if you tell me something I think you shouldn't be telling me, this conversation will be over **   
CG: I'M TRYING TO THANK YOU, FUCKASS!  
CG: EVEN IF YOU WERE AN UNCONSCIONABLY RUDE SHIT JUST LEAVING US ALONE LIKE THAT, ME AND THE RORY-HUMAN ACTUALLY HAD A PRETTY GOOD FEELINGS JAM, I APPRECIATE THAT.   
**LE: I think I see..... :)X**   
CG: THE FUCK IS THAT?   
**LE: me smiling with a bow tie! I do emoticons because they are cool ;)X**   
CG: I SWEAR I WILL FIND WHATEVER IT IS IN THIS UNIVERSE YOU VALUE MOST, AND OFFER YOU A HOT STEAMING PLATE OF IT TO NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.  
CG: ANYWAY.  
CG: YOU WERE ACTUALLY PROBABLY A LITTLE BIT LESS OF A FUCKASS THEN I THOUGHT AT FIRST, AND MAYBE I SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SO HARD ON YOU ENTIRELY JUSTIFIED AS IT WAS.

Karkat moaned and rhythmically knocked the back of his head against the stone wall behind him, "this is why I shouldn't try explaining things to humans. Just fucking... get it."  
Rory frowned and looked down at the crude design that Karkat had sketched out on the back of a receipt from Asda with his biro, the only writing materials Rory had been able to produce.  
"So basically," he said, "you have one of each of these four things? Like, four partners? At once?"  
"Well, ideally."  
"Doesn't that get too busy though? I mean, what if you want to do something with your, uh, More-ayl,"  
"Moirail,"  
"Uh huh, but your Matesprit fancies spending the evening in with you?"  
"Well for a start, you don't just live on top of your Matesprit like that, you'd drive each other nuts."  
"I'm with you so far."  
"You're still thinking about it wrong! There's four quadrants, but it's not like they're separated, they're all part of the one whole thing! Just... different sections of it."  
"That's the part that confuses me."  
"Look, you don't just stop thinking about your Matesprit and start thinking about your Kismesis for a while, it all blends and flows together naturally. You balance things out, and then when the four quadrants come together," Karkat sighed, and Rory could swear he was actually getting a little bit misty eyed, "then it all forms a perfect whole, each quadrant adding the necessary component to life, all at once."  
"Doesn't it make you feel like, I dunno, a spare part in a big machine though?"  
"Nah."  
"That's not much of an explanation."  
"Well, romance is a tricky thing."  
Rory glanced down between his knees and fiddles with the scrap of paper in his hands, "what if your Matesprit has a Moirail who is always dragging them away from you."  
"Look human," sighed Karkat, "a Moirail is that one person who you can hear any amount of nonsense fuckery out of, and you just sit there and take it because they're the only person who's going to put up with you in return. You can hate them, you can push them away, but you can never quite get rid of them because in the end they know you and they'll always come back when you need them. Trust me on that one," he twitched a shadow of a smile for a moment, thinking of his own Moirail somewhere out there in the universe.  
"Yeah, well with humans, we kind of expect that out of our Matesprits."  
"That's why you're all a bunch of ignorant fuck-backward savages!"  
"Thanks,"  
"I mean it! Your Matesprit isn't supposed to put up with all the shit you dump on your Moirail. You treat them better then that."  
"How so?"  
"The female, you are her Matesprit yes?"  
"Amy? Yeah. I mean, yeah if we were like you lot then, yeah we'd be that."  
"Well would you ever tell Amy she's being fucking stupid and slap some sense into her?"  
"No!"  
"Of course not. That's what a Moirail is for. You can't expect a Matesprit to be fucking harsh, you need someone not so... close for that."  
"Huh," Rory thought about that for a long moment. In all their adventures, for all the good the Doctor had done, he had never hesitated to correct Amy when he thought she was wrong, he didn't hold her when she cried and he didn't kiss her hair and tell her everything was going to be all right. The Doctor knew better then that, and freely admitted it.  
"That actually makes a sort of sense," he remarked.  
"Uh huh. Millennia of super advanced troll civilisation, and it turns out we know a thing or two. Shocker."  
"What should I call you anyway? No need to be so cagey about it."  
"Karkat," he grunted.  
Rory held out a hand, and Karkat took it gingerly. They shook hands awkwardly.  
"Thanks Karkat. You're pretty good at working things out."  
"Uh, yeah." Karkat looked uncomfortable and swallowed, "uh, thanks. I guess."  
There was a sudden rumble that reverberated through the entire room, fingers of dust fell from the ceiling and there was a distant sound of breaking crockery. Amy and the Doctor ran into the room, Rory stood up in alarm.  
"Time to go, time to go," said the Doctor hurriedly, stopping in front of them and nervously running his hands through his hair and down the seam of his jacket, "I think we really ought to leave."  
"What is it?" Rory took Amy's hand, already more then happy to go.  
"Well the thing is, the adult trolls weren't just asked nicely to pack up and go," the Doctor licked his lips, "it was more an order. And to make sure it was followed, it seems that the empress left behind, uhm,"  
There was another rumble, Karkat went pale as he recognised the sound, "Imperial drones!"


	3. Chapter 3

They roared through the walls and doorways of the hive, nothing stopped them and they penetrated rock and mortar like so much mist. The Doctor cried out and they all ran for the balcony and the waiting TARDIS. Suddenly a black shape, easily twenty feet tall, crashed down onto the balcony between them and safety. It was roughly man-shaped but covered in spines, spikes and piercing implements. In each mighty fist it held a great black pail, and it turned to face them with a baleful hate-filled glow in it's eye-slits.  
  
All was silent, of a sudden. As one unit the drones were still, and the leader of them regarded the small group. There was an inneffible sense that they were being weighted and measured in its' gaze.  
  
"They're looking for the old, the adult trolls," hissed the Doctor, "and I'm the oldest thing around here. Get behind me!" He extended his arms and slowly inched forwards. The balcony was bathed in the ruddy glow of the Imperial Drone's eyes, casting a long shadow behind the impossibly thin and frail looking Time Lord.  
"My name," he called out, "is the Doctor! President Elect of the High Council of Gallifrey, in the constellation of Kasteboros. I hold the Rassilon Imprimatur, I am the last guardian of the Hand of Omega, Keeper of the Legacy of Rassilon, Defender of the Laws of Time. I am the last of the Time Lords, and very nearly head boy of the Prydonian Chapterhouse. I still say that election was just a popularity contest." He tucked his thumbs in his braces and puffed out his chest, "and how can I help you today?"  
  
"Fuck me," whispered Karkat, behind the edge of the great doorway to the balcony, "he can't be serious."  
"He's the Doctor," said Amy, "get used to it, kid."  
Rory looked around thoughtfully, "Hey," he whispered, "there's a window, we could maybe get outside that way and circle around behind that thing to the TARDIS,"  
"Want to risk it?" Amy looked at him with a level expression which said- I'm with you.  
"Fuck it," hissed Karkat, "those drones only care about culling and getting genetic material, and I for one am feeling a little bit too stressed to perform. Let's go!"  
  
The Imperial drone stared down at the Time Lord. This was something outside it's range of experience which, to date, had consisted of demanding genetic meterial and issuing violent retribution for the failure to produce same. Lacking any ability to engage in meaningful conversation on this level and uncomfortable with the situation the drone decided to fall back on what it knew. It raised both arms to waist level, holding out the pails and issuing a low, sussurating snarl in it's throatplates.  
"Ah," said the Doctor, "I have a bad feeling I know what you're after."  
  
Behind him, a window creaked open. Undeneath ran the lip of the balcony with its elaborately carved stone rail. The three of them would have to cling to the rail and edge along the outside of the balcony in order to stay hidden from the Drone. Rory nodded at Amy to go first, then helped Karkat up onto the window ledge, letting them get a little way out before pulling himself up and out after them. Karkat managed to keep a lid on his complaints, even thoguh he found himself clambering along the stone balcony edge high above the ground in freezing winds, and he was suddenly very much aware that he should have been wearing more then his troll skivvies in this situation. He gripped the balcony rail tightly and tried to keep his head down and look as inconspicious as possible. He heard a sudden intake of break and a squeak as Amy slipped and tried not to cry out. She almost fell, clinging to the rail for dear life, and he reached out with a grunt of effort, gripping her arm and helping her get her balance back. She glanced back at him and nodded.  
"Thanks,"  
"Shoosh, keep moving!"  
  
The Doctor smiled nervously. He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and swallowed, playing for time.  
"Fascinating subject, actually, the Alternian method of reproduction. The fact that there is such a strict delineation between blood types suggests a large range of dominant genetic factors all complementing each other, which has interesting ramifications when we consider-"  
The drone rumbled darkly and raised the pails a little. Now it was on familiar ground. The demand had been made and it was not being met, therefore the irritating small thing would be culled. That made life a lot simpler and answered every question neatly. The Imperial drone drew itself up to its full height and raised one mighty fist, fully intending to crush the Doctor.  
"I warn you!" The Doctor shouted, "I won't be responsible for the consequences if you're going to be unreasonable!"  
  
Rory made it to the half way point in their path. On his left side, the hive they had just left and on his right side the TARDIS stood at the end of the balcony. Directly in front of him he was staring at the armoured flank of an Imperial drone and he didn't like the look of it. He paused, frowning. He thought he caught sight of something for a moment, obscured by the bulk of the drone, it was moving fast.  
  
The Doctor licked his lips and slowly reached into his jacket for his screwdriver, though he wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do with it. The drone roared and drove it's fist downward toward him.  
  
There was an earsplitting scream of rending air, and the entire side of the drone exploded. The carapace of the thing shuddered and trembled, and it took three halting steps to the side before collapsing in flames. Amy screamed, the air was filled with gouts of black smoke. It collapsed right where Rory had been inching his way along. The air was filled with an insistent buzzing sound as a hulking black shape edged up to the balcony and landed with a crunch, it was an Alternian air-attack barge, the gun ports smoked and frothed with smoke and its black metal flanks were daubed in blue paint with repeated diagrams of tetrahedrons. The Doctor shielded his face with his jacket while a wreath of oily black smoke passed over him and looked up. Stood in the prow, surrounded by a shrieking and laughing crew who waved cutlasses, auto-lances and elaborate pistols in the air, was a gaunt female form in figure-hugging black with blue piping. She had a black patch of cloth tied over one eye, and one arm was replaced with a delicate metal prosthetic. As Amy and Karkat crawled over the balcony rail cautiously the Doctor approached with a wide, open smile. A clanking hissing gangway was lowered on pneumatic arms and the captain of the attack barge stood there at the top, with a piratical smirk.  
"Hello! I'm the Doctor!"  
"Greetings Doctor, I am the Marquise Spinnaret Mindfang, my crew and I would be delighted to enjoy the company of yourself and your associates there. Let's not try anything foolish, hey?" She drew her cutlass and leered.  
Amy and Karkat approached the Doctor, he looked at her and mouthed "Rory?" But she just looked at him, her expression tight and nervous, and shook her head, she didn't see what happened to him.  
  
As they ascended the gangway, Mindfang beckoned impatiently. The rumbling of drones had resumed, the ones further down in the hive had realised by now that something was wrong.  
"Quickly, quickly now ye wretches!" She pointed a pistol, it hummed meaningfully.  
"Thank you," grinned the Doctor as the gangway was retracted, "ah, very grateful for the assistance and whatnot but we really can't stay, I just need to nip down to that box down there below us just for a moment-"  
"Oh that? My pretty blue box? Do you like it. I just got it." Mindfang smirked. From across the barge there was a groan of metal as a manipulator crane extended, lifting up the TARDIS, "I took one look and I thought, that will go just lov-er-ly in my cabin. Simply had to have it."  
"Ah. I see."  
"Yes I thought you would see things my way," she leered at him, and the Doctor began to suspect that he might have been better off taking his chances with the drone.  
  
They were herded into a stinking hold in the belly of the barge as it lifted into the air with a tortured groan of lifter engines and slid away into the darkness. Karkat just huddled in a corner, shivering wildly in his troll skivvies and rocking back and forth, muttering to himself. A metal grate door was slammed shut to lock them in and the surly gamblingant who escorted them slouched off. When they were alone the Doctor gathered them together.  
"Amy? Are you okay? How about you, Carcino?"  
"Kuh," he shivered, "Kuh, call me Karkat,"  
"Nice of you to mention, thank you Karkat."  
"Doctor!" Hissed Amy, "I didn't see what happened to Rory, that thing fell over right near him and I think he fell!"  
"I'm sure he's all right," said the Doctor, "I know it in fact. Amy, we'll get out of here and we'll find him. I promise you that."  
"Doctor, I trust you, but how do you know?" She looked on the verge of breaking down entirely, "I think... I think he's dead, Doctor."  
"I have a pretty good idea that I'd know it if he was," whispered the Doctor. He patted his breast pocket, where the folded up sheet of paper still lay, "Karkat? How are you doing?"  
"Oh I'm just fuh-fucking dandy! I'm one happy-ass motherfucker over here. You see this corner? This is the happy fruity fun time corner, I just love it!"  
"Glad to see you're feeling better."  
"We're going to die, horribly! I don't know about you Doctor, but that fucking pirate bitch didn't look like she wants to give us a big dinner and a bath!"  
  
In fact, it was not long before they were all escorted to the private quarters of Mindfang herself, where indeed a great banquet had been laid out on the captain's table and they were formally invited to sit with her and enjoy. One of the gamblingants had been down to their prison and had passed a rough pair of sailor's pants through the bars for Karkat. They didn't have anything in his small size though, and so they were hitched and belted practically up to his armpits. As they walked into the richly appointed captain's cabin Mindfang gave Karkat an especially long appraising look. They sat down and the Doctor tucked a napkin into his collar with a flourish, favouring Karkat with an especially smug look.  
"Yeah right," muttered Karkat, "I know I know."  
"Well now," said Mindfang, "I hope you're all recovered after your little adventure." She was sat awkwardly in her wide throne-like chair, sideways on and she had a leg thrown over one arm of it. She was trying to look casually louche, but the Doctor saw that she was favouring one side and not moving any more then she had to. He realised in a flash that she was hurt- and injured a lot more badly then she wanted them to realise.  
"Marquise," he began.  
"Please, call me Mindfang. All my very good friends do."  
"I don't mean to seem rude or anything, and I must say you know how to lay on a simply fantastic dinner-"  
"Thank you,"  
"-but I am curious, what exactly are you up to?"  
Mindfang made a beckoning motion, and from the shadows behind them a silent figure emerged, a female in a similarly form-fitting outfit with green piping and a hood that shrouded her face drifted close to Mindfang and wordlessly filled her goblet with wine.  
"Doctor," began the pirate, "I take it from your odd appearance that you are a visitor to this sad and empty world?"  
"Just passing through,"  
"You find us in a reduced state, oh yes very reduced. By my eye! I still wonder how things came to such a pretty pass." She sighed, "I make it my business to hunt down the drones wherever they cluster, and shall do so till I die. You're lucky I was nearby. The empress has commanded the death of all the adults who aren't gone by the end of this perigee you know."  
"Why is that?" Amy chipped in, "seems a bit much, to me."  
"Ha!" Mindfang banged her metal fist on the table and winced for a second in pain, masking it with a piratical grimace, "I like this one Doctor. The word of her Imperial Condescension is 'a bit much,' ho yes I like her indeed!"  
"It's a fair question though Mindfang, why is this empress so upset?"  
"You really don't know?" Mindfang raised an eyebrow. She looked pointedly at Karkat, who just turned his face down to his food. She looked like she was waiting for him to say something, but he kept his mouth shut.  
"I'd really, really like to know, yes," said the Doctor, watching her warily.  
"There has been a rebellion you see," began Mindfang, "a great and terrible rebellion. For the first time the imperial rule has been directly challenged by none other then my own lover, my killer. He rose up against the Condesce, against all of my better advice, and she broke him for it. Aye, she broke him." She twitched, and passed a hand over her side, "though not before he broke me, too. I always thought a pirate's reward was a quick death, but no such luck. He speared me side and set his pets on me, and we're still fleeing from the worst of them." She took a swig of her wine and grunted, "aye, the worst of them. You see my world in a reduced state Doctor, and me reduced too. I've not much longer left. But I'll go out the way I came into this world! Screaming and unwelcome! That's why I'm hunting the drones. The rebellion might well be over, but I'll not surrender just yet!"  
  
Her associate, the female always no more then six steps away from her stepped closer with a little more wine, and filled up the cups of the others. She paused next to Karkat as she did, briefly placing a grey hand on his shoulder before darting away. If Mindfang noticed, she said nothing.  
  
The Doctor wiped his lips with his napkin and set it down on the table firmly. "Mindfang," he said, "you must realise we have to leave. And I will be needing my box."  
"Ah yes-s-s-s," she hissed, seemingly lost in a reverie for a moment, "the box, the box. You know, I tried to open it up. Blades, guns, even energy lances, just bounced right off of it. I know a special thing when I see it. What is the secret of the box, Doctor?"  
"It's where I keep my spare hats."  
Suddenly a pistol was in her hand, she pointed it at the Doctor, and then twitched her hand to indicate the others too, "don't toy with me Doctor. Let me say this, that I will kill two of you, and I'll ask the survivor to open up that box for me. Now, which of you will be that lucky person?"  
Karkat looked up and gulped, he knew where this was going. Behind Mindfang, the woman who had served them brought her hands up to her hood in an involuntary motion, clasping them tightly together over her breast, her knuckles tight with repressed emotion.  
"Mindfang," said the Doctor quietly, "this isn't wise. I'm telling you that because I think everyone deserves a chance to turn away from a path that isn't going to take them anywhere good."  
"I've seen my path, Doctor. I've seen it all laid out neatly before me. All of my days written down. But I never saw you there. I thought I knew everything my fate held, but you weren't there."  
"Time can be re-written, Mindfang."  
"I would give a great deal for that to be true."  
"I can help you."  
"That being the case," she leered, "I really don't need the others at all."  
There was a cry from the corner, it was the other female. She stifled it in an instant, shivering noticeably. Mindfang cursed under her breath, but hesitated.  
"We'll talk more later on," she said smoothly, calling for her guard, "take them back down below!"  
  
They were escorted in silence back to the hold and locked in again. Karkat was looking if anything even more stressed since they had been directly threatened by Mindfang, it was obvious that she intended nothing good. Amy sat down on the bench of their cell which was the only furnishing. She looked up calmly at the Doctor.  
"Well Doctor? You've had long enough to come up with some genius plan, out with it."  
"Hmm," mused the Doctor, "I'm still working on that." He glanced down at the locked cell door. His sonic screwdriver would make short work of the lock but what then?  
"We need to just get to the fucking box, and get the fuck out of here!" Hissed Karkat.  
"It's not that simple, we've become part of events now and we can't just leave until time is no longer in a state of flux."  
"Also we need to find Rory first!" Snapped Amy.  
"Yes, yes I'm sorry Amy I know we can't do anything till we get Rory back."  
"He's dead!" Shouted Karkat, "how's that? Can we move on now?"  
That was when Amy slapped him. Karkat looked at her in shock and held a hand up to his cheek. He suddenly looked like a child who had been scolded, his eyes full of hurt and confusion. The Doctor looked as though he didn't know quite what to say, and Amy bit her lip, she immediately regretted it even if Karkat had been practically begging for a smacking.  
"Ah-h-h come here you silly," she extended an arm to him and hooked him round the shoulders, pulling him up close against her side, "I didn't mean it. But don't say that about Rory. He's coming for me, that's one thing you don't even need to worry about. He's coming for me."  
Karkat found himself nestling against his will at her side. The human was surprisingly soft, and she had a scent he couldn't quite place that was alien but not unpleasant.  
"Gerroff," he muttered half-heartedly.  
"Shut up, you're getting a hug."  
"Stop pitying me."  
"I don't," she teased, ruffling his hair, "I totally hate you," she chuckled playfully but she didn't see the way Karkat's cheeks flushed vividly.  
  
An hour or more passed before they were suddenly alerted to the presence of someone approaching the cell with awkward, shuffling steps. It was the serving girl who had been at the dinner with Mindfang, she still had the hooded robe, but when she approached them she pushed back the hood to reveal fine-boned aristocratic features. She looked as though she had experienced terrible things, with a haunted, frightened look constantly tugging at her eyes, and a livid new bruise was blooming across one cheek where metal knuckles had struck her roughly. She went to the cell door and opened it with a key she produced from her robe, and without hesitation she went straight to Karkat and knelt down in front of him, reaching up to cup his cheeks in her hands, she began to weep.  
"I had to come, I couldn't let her do it to you,"  
"Fuck," he whispered.  
"It's you, isn't it, oh I see it! I see it in your eyes, it's you!"  
"I don't..."  
She pulled him to her in a tight embrace, he squawked and tried to move.  
"Who are you?" Asked Amy, "are you here to help us?"  
The female nodded briskly, "it doesn't matter who I am, you have to get out of here. I couldn't live knowing I didn't try to help you."  
The Doctor stepped closer and touched her jaw, raising the bruised cheek to the light gently, "you took a great risk coming here, didn't you?"  
"Mindfang will kill me for this."  
"We'll see about that."  
  
They made their way through the hold at the base of the barge stealthily, it was a warren of crates, cartons, boxes and bags, mostly arranged in a haphazard fashion by the gamblingants. The female led them to a stair leading up through a hatchway.  
"From here, we are in danger. Gamblingants everywhere, and we have to pass through the lower decks. If we reach the main deck you could steal a jolly boat and perhaps if you are careful, be away before they know anything is amiss."  
"No," said the Doctor, "we need to get to the TARDIS, the blue box. Do you know where it is?"  
"Up on the main deck, near the cargo crane, but why?"  
"That box is important."  
"Getting up there will be hard enough, but making your way across a crowded deck to the crane? You'd never make it!"  
"Fuck," hissed Karkat, "we need some kind of distraction."  
  
Suddenly the entire barge creaked and moaned as the engines were gunned into life and the deck shifted under them as it turned with a roar of guns.  
  
"Shit! What's that!" Squeaked Karkat.  
"Some kind of distraction!" The Doctor grinned madly, "come on! Geronimo!"  
  
Amy was right, Rory hadn't died. When the Imperial drone had exploded and fell against the balcony rail he was tossed away like a rag doll into the air, clutching at nothing he tumbled from the side of the hive and was suddenly and acutely aware that the ground rushing towards him would smash him utterly.  
"Amy!"  
  
He was surrounded by white, his fall was arrested suddenly as he was snatched out of the air by a limb which extended with snake like speed to grip him tightly but with infinite care. He looked up and his mouth hung open in shock. The thing was hard to define, it was a uniform bright spotless white which made it hard to define its limbs and features. It was certainly enormous, and it clung to the side of the hive like a bat. It looked as though it had slithered and clambered up the side of the hive structure, silent and quick as a snake, reptilian tail wrapped tightly around the curving wall of the structure. It turned a head surmounted with serried pairs of horns toward Rory, and opened vivid bright eyes like burning rubies. Rory swallowed hard, he could barely muster the will to move so much as a finger.  
  
Rearing back and regarding him balefully, Pyralspite the dragon-lusus spread out his massive wings with a snap like leather and opened it's mouth to let out a low bass rumble.


	4. Chapter 4

Gamblingants ran about in every direction, and no one was paying any attention to the prisoners. They emerged through a square port into the fresh air and the chaos of the main deck. Dotted around the toprails were energy gun emplacements that belched and heaved, and then entire barge was tilted crazily as it swung about to come to bear on a growing glow in the distance. Up at the wheelhouse Mindfang herself screamed and cajoled her crew.  
"Abaft the port-beam, run up number two and three! Move, ye scabrous band of assholes!"  
She fired her pistol in the air and grabbed at the wheel with her metal hand.  
"There," the Doctor pointed, "the TARDIS."  
It was on the deck, planted there incongruously next to a cargo crane, forgotten as soon as the emergency had begin. There was a sudden and wrenching shift in the angle of the deck, accompanied by a sound of screaming metal, and one of the crew ran up to Mindfang.  
"Number three is going, she'll not last!"  
"She'll last mister, run her up! Am I not obeyed on my own ship? Run her up mister!"  
"Aye!"

They tried to be stealthy as they made their way across the deck, though in the confusion it was more a matter of staying out of the way as crewtrolls raced about yelling through the smoke and confusion. The barge was picking up speed at an incredible rate, and winds buffeted them violently. They took in the wind and ran ahead of it, the barge tearing through the air like a bullet but it was not nearly enough to escape Pyralspite. The dragon-lusus ripped through the air like a skein of milky rage, circling fully around the barge in a wide arc before spreading wide wings to catch the air. Hanging for a moment like a fly in amber the dragon-lusus turned the twin flames of it's eyes on the barge, ripping a scorched hole edged in glowing vapourized metal with it's energy gaze. Amy shrieked and clung to a crate lashed against the deck as they lurched again. She looked across to the attacker and cried out again.  
"Doctor!"  
"Amy!"  
"It's Rory!"  
"What?"  
So it was, high up on the head of the dragon-lusus, clinging on where he could straddle a pair of rearward horns like a rider, sat Rory.

Rory had stared up at the dragon-lusus who snatched him out of the air with the ease of a cat pawing a curious speck. He pulled himself to his feet a little unsteadily, the dragon-lusus held its clawed arm steady for him. If anything, it looked fascinated, though entirely content to eat him and then be about its' own inscrutable errands. The barge of the gamblingants took off then, and pulled away from the hive. Rory caught sight of a flash of red hair on the deck.  
"Amy!"  
Pyralspite saw something too, Mindfang. Through the reptilian mind of the dragon-lusus only one thought raged, a burning impossible undeniable command planted there by the dying Summoner. Seek Mindfang. Kill Mindfang. Pyralspite seemed to grin, if that were possible, and it narrowed ruby eyes, preparing to leap into the air. Rory could see that the creature had forgotten about him all of a sudden, occupied by something far more interesting.  
"Hey!" He shouted, "uh, hey! You!"  
Pyralspite regarded the tiny human. The creature had a little difficulty telling different individuals apart, as they all came under the same heading of "food" in it's mind.  
"I don't know you," Rory shouted, cupping his hands round his mouth, "and you don't know me, but there's someone on that ship thing there who I need to get to. I need to! And if you're not going to help me," he gulped down his fear and stared deep into the eyes of Pyralspite, "then we've got a problem!"  
Pyralspite stared back, eyes burning with a low, dim glow. It stared at and through the human, seeing behind his gaze two thousand years of steely determination and indefatigable will. Pyralspite remembered somewhere in the back of it's mind a time when it had protected a being, a tiny insignificant scrap of a thing that had tried to teach the dragon-lusus about justice, and courage. If it were possible to equate mortal concerns to the mind of such a being, Pyralspite realised that it missed those times. The entire hive shook and stonework buckled. The drones were coming, they charged through the building wrecking and shattering everything. Rory found himself tossed through the air, and caught neatly and safely with the crook of Pyralspite's neck. Without needing to be told, he clung on. Pyralspite hissed a frothing spume of steam and sputum, adjusting it's grip to clamber upwards. It would seek out Mindfang and enter battle, but first- to feed.

Mindfang wrenched on the wheel and the barge turned a wide flank to Pyralspite, as her guns roared. One of those shots caught the dragon-lusus on the leathery flesh of it's wing, searing a ragged hole, and Pyralspite screamed.  
"Have at you, my lover, my killer!" Shrieked Mindfang, "no more running, then! Let's finish it at last!" She winced and clutched at her side, where she was now bleeding profusely. The wound had never healed since the Summoner had given it to her, and the blood drew Pyralspite to her no matter how far or how fast she ran. She signalled her gunnery chief for another broadside, and it was at that point she spied the Doctor. He had reached the TARDIS and it opened for him easily, like nothing more then a wooden box, though she had witnessed her own crew throw everything they had at it to no avail. Within, there was an orangey glow and she could make out a space far too vast. That was the secret of the box at last- a portal to another place. Salvation!  
"Doctor!" She screamed, "Doctor! You said- you said you could help me!"  
Amy ducked into the TARDIS, and Karkat followed her, turning at the last moment he saw the Doctor take a step out into the open, in the middle of the deck, confronting Mindfang high up in the wheelhouse above him.

He thought he could perceive some change in the way of things for a moment. In one shining instant, everything seemed frozen. The Doctor stood, slowly sweeping his gaze about the burning deck. He took in every screaming crewman, every destiny spiralling and weaving together into a knot of pure history at this one point. He was not moving- he was a rigid core around which everything else orbited. The deck span under him, the dragon-lusus arced around him, the world beneath dropped away from his feet and rolled beneath. And beyond that, the Alternian sun wheeled about him and the stars past that, all of them whirled in a snowstorm of perfect lights surrounding the Doctor. He was stood in the centre of all things and perceived clearly the motion and flexure of time itself flowing around him. Then, in the blink of an eye, the moment was gone and Karkat let out his breath.  
"I'm sorry!" He called out to her, "I'm so sorry! This is now a fixed point in time, what happens here, I can't stop it!"  
"Then what good are you, Doctor? What good are you?"  
"I'm so, so sorry."

Rory dug his heels in and yanked on Pyralspite's horn, pulling hard. "There!" He yelled, "Those guns!"  
Pyralspite changed tactics, responding to it's rider, and instead of hurling itself at Mindfang as it had done for each of their increasingly fraught encounters, each time pushed back by those hungry guns, it turned it's fierce wrath on them. Mindfang's defences melted away before the fearful gaze of Pyralspite and the gamblingants knew that this would be their last duel with the beast.

The Doctor shoved Karkat bodily into the TARDIS, beside him the female who had helped them clutched onto a windlass fearfully. He took her arm but she just shook her head.  
"Come on!" He cried, "you don't have to die here! You have a choice!"  
"I know!" She yelled back over the shriek of dying trolls, "this is my choice! She took me, and I'm hers!"  
The Doctor just looked on her in utter confusion, and she reached up to cup his cheek, kissing him.  
"Some things are meant to be, Doctor. Take care of him," she glanced into the TARDIS for a moment, where Karkat huddled against the doorframe, looking out aghast, "take care of him for me, please."

Pyralspite landed heavily against the side of the barge, clinging on with taloned feet, sweeping the deck with lashing bursts of it's vision. The entire vessel groaned and turned, beginning to capsize in midair with terrifying stately slowness.  
"Come on then," Mindfang limped to the toprail of the bridge, bleeding profusely from her side. She clung on with one metal hand and one stained vividly blue, "if destiny truly cannot be rewrit, then I'll live the tale laid down for me. Who wrote you, white beast? Who marked down your life on paper and threw it to the wind?" She raised her arms and spread them wide as Pyralspite turned to look on her, "come!"

As the Doctor ran to the console and began hitting controls Amy confronted him.  
"You're not thinking we're leaving Doctor?"  
"No," he looked up, "but we're going to have to get off this ship. Hold on to something, she really doesn't like when I try this..." He rammed a knife-switch down and the TARDIS moaned into life with a shudder.

The ruined vessel plunged through the air, trailing acrid oily black clouds, and the wounded Pyralspite barrelled upwards on the generous thermals, coursing through the air with a glorious sense of freedom. For some reason the gnawing demand that had plagued it's mind was now lifted, and it was free. Rory just clung on and tried not to look down, this idea had seemed a whole lot better before he had actually thought it through. The dragon-lusus and it's human rider ploughed on toward a setting moon, the night was vivid and brilliant with stars now, the sky was a dull velvety blue by their light. Rory heard a noise on the edge of his hearing, a familiar sound that prompted him to turn and crane his neck as far as he could. Far below and behind them but rising fast, a tumbling spinning blue box powered through the air.

Within the control room the Doctor struggled and slapped at dials and buttons almost randomly. The time rotor rose and fell more quickly then usual, with an uncharacteristic grinding noise. At the doors Karkat was keeping watch, he had them cracked open and was squinting into the wind.  
"More!" He shouted, "it's going to get away!"  
"It is not!" retorted the Doctor, before leaning over to actually caress the console, "isn't that right, sexy?"  
The TARDIS shuddered with effort and wrenched through the sky toward the dragon-lusus. Pyralspite ignored it, the thing was not part of it's natural universe and therefore beneath attention, clearly not food and neither apparently a threat, all Pyralspite wanted was to reach a roost wherein to rest and regenerate. The TARDIS matched speed, hanging shakily in the air, and Rory could clearly see Karkat had pulled open the doors and was waving at him madly. He tried to move, but the only thing keeping him from tumbling straight off into the air was the fact that he was hanging on for dear life. He looked back at Karkat helplessly, there was no point even trying to shout out as the wind snatched his breath away instantly.

Karkat gritted his teeth and thought for a moment, estimating the distance in his head. "Doctor! Pull up ten milligrees!"  
"How much is that?!"  
"Just go up a bit!" Karkat turned from the doors and looked around, thinking. He ran over to the Doctor, "I need a length of high-tensile cord of some sort."  
"Toolbox, bottom of the steps, there's a crate full of old rope next to it." Amy looked at him aslant and he shrugged, "it really comes in handy a lot."

The TARDIS rumbled into position, Rory looked up as it hovered unsteadily over him, it had to be at least twenty feet away and he could feel the cold sapping the grip from his fingers, he couldn't last long. Suddenly he saw Karkat erupt into the air out of the TARDIS, a rope secured tightly around his waist unwinding behind him. He screamed in a combination of raw determination and bowel loosening pure liquid fear as he plunged through the icy air towards a wounded and not very impressed dragon-lusus. He summoned his twin sickles from his captchalog just before he impacted just between Pyralspite's shoulderblades and dug in, hooking one around a spiky projection and another over the lip of a wing, even so his grip was tenuous.  
"Human!" He yelled, "stop fucking about and get over here! Fuck!" He clung tight as an updraught buffeted him, Pyralspite had noticed and was shifting in the air. Rory slid and slithered down the length of Pyralspite's neck, colliding with Karkat and they both tumbled into the air. Karkat wrapped his arms around Rory and hooked his sickles together behind him with a clang. Rory hugged him back, taking a firm grip on the rope, but when it went taught they still nearly fell apart. Pyralspite roared in frustration and took wing, entirely sick and tired of all the fuckassery. Rory and Karkat were left dangling from the TARDIS.  
"Karkat!" Yelled Rory,"you came for me?"  
"Well who else would, fuckass? Your Matesprit female has skinny useless legs! No jumping power!"  
"Uh, Karkat, don't say that to her face all right?"  
"Why not?"  
"Okay, maybe just the skinny part."  
"Fuck. Humans."  
"I know! We're great, aren't we!"

Later. The TARDIS tumbled through the temporal vortex at a somewhat restrained rate. The Doctor was giving her a chance to rest up a little in her favoured environment. The TARDIS had a banqueting room, several reception halls, one of which had a fountain of blancmange, and seventeen separate parlours, but they were all gathered in one of the lesser kitchens. It was little more then a scullery really, stone tiled and with panelled walls in alternating oak and maple plaquettes with ornate carving. The room was dominated by a stone and metal oven that looked positively medieval, and a long wooden table. Karkat had turned out to be an excellent chef, despite the unfamiliar range of ingredients in the cupboards from a range of worlds and times. The Doctor had assured him that it was all perfectly edible, but he made it actually taste good. They had shared a roasted loaf of something similar to beef, and a consommé of brackish, oaky but satisfying flavour. They sat together casually eating bread rolls and tea afterwards.  
"I still can't believe it," said Amy, "you just went for it! I couldn't have done that!"  
Karkat opened his mouth, then shared a glance with Rory and cracked a grin, "yeah, maybe so."  
The Doctor smiled around his teacup, he had been uncharacteristically quiet while they ate.  
"Well," he said, "next time maybe pick somewhere a little less... dragon-y."  
"Where do you come from Doctor," said Karkat casually, "let's go there."  
the Doctor just smiled and shrugged, setting down his teacup. "I'm going to get a bit of sleep actually. Oh, don't bother washing up, the TARDIS does that. I'm not really sure how, I'm starting to think it just returns the cutlery to a point in time where it was clean." He waved vaguely and slouched off, and Karkat watched him go before turning to the others.  
"What? What did I say? I was fucking polite all evening, I was a thrillingly charming fucker, you all saw."  
"It's just," Rory shrugged and looked at Amy.  
"He doesn't like thinking about home," she said, "he's the last of his people."  
"The fuck does that mean?"  
"He doesn't talk about it much, but there was a war,"  
"He's the last one left," said Rory quietly, "the last Time Lord."

The Doctor was dangling underneath the massive control console column on a trapeze-like seat when Karkat found him, tinkering with the morass of cabling and wires dangling there.  
"Doctor? What happened to getting some sleep?"  
"Oh, Karkat, I just wanted to make a few adjustments before I went. I suppose I lost track of time. Is everything all right?"  
"Oh sure, just fucking dandy." Karkat sat on a stair edge and fiddled with his jumper. It was made of wool and covered in garish geometrical patterns, the Doctor had given it to him. He dreaded to think what would happen when Terezi noticed it.  
"Is something the matter?"  
"You're all alone?" Karkat laid his chin on his fist, "you never said."  
"It's not something that really comes up in conversation." The Doctor was concentrating hard on the junction between two lengths of cable, but not doing anything. "I really am quite busy."  
"Why do you do all this, Doctor?"  
"Well the control circuits are constantly re-shifting, so if I don't keep up with the maintenance-"  
"Fuck!" Karkat brought his volume down to a low seethe, "I mean why do you fuck around helping people out? I keep hearing all these things about you. Why do you give a shit about us? We're nothing compared to you." He sniffed and looked down into his hands, "we're just stupid dumb shits fucking about all our stupid lives, why bother?"  
"Is that really how you see yourself?" The Doctor shifted position, looking at him in surprise.  
"It's true!"  
"Karkat, the life you lead will touch everyone you ever meet, and in time your influence will spread and grow... if you could step back and see all the consequences to all your actions, over hundreds and thousands of years. you'd see things the way I do. You'd wonder how anyone could ever think they aren't special. Galaxies turn on the head of a pin, Karkat, and the destinies of billions are changed by everything you choose to do."  
"I'm nothing, Doctor. I'm shit at everything I ever try and do. Destiny would be better off without me."  
The Doctor held out a hand and Karkat helped him clamber out from under the console.  
"Do you know what I saw today?"  
"What?"  
"I saw someone leap into thin air at a dragon, to save someone they only just met. I don't think I've ever seen anything so brave and good in all my lives."  
Karkat flushed and looked down, "fuck."  
"You're more then you'll ever admit, but you have a greatness Karkat."  
Karkat abruptly threw his arms around the Doctor and clasped him tightly, squeezing his eyes shut and pressing his cheek against his shirt. the Doctor smiled and, a little awkwardly, returned the embrace.  
"You know, you never told me what's on that bit of paper of yours."  
"Ah yes, I thought you'd forgotten about that."  
"Are you going to show it to me?"  
"Well if you think about it, there's one way you can find out what's on it yourself."  
"Doctor, I just realised, I know where we have to go next!"

Alternia, several years ago but not too many. Before the disaster that destroyed everything, when the troll culture of the children was still at it's height, when trolls were taken away into the universe when they came of age. A massive goods and products dispensary hive bustled with traffic, trolls came and when as they pleased gathering the supplies they wanted. Outside, in the vast space where once vehicles would have landed and parked, the wind picked up out of nowhere. There was a moaning, rumbling groan of tearing space and the TARDIS materialised as though it had been stood there forever. Karkat darted out, shouting behind him for the others to stay put and wait a moment.

Inside, he went straight for the electronics sector, he remembered when he had been little more then a wiggler coming here like it was yesterday. What he needed was right there. He strode down an aisle of gleaming products, stocked and replenished constantly by automated systems. At the very end he found husktops all lined up in their packaging, and reached up for the model he wanted. A young troll wandered over, pulling out one of the husktops on a low shelf, Karkat snorted derisively.  
"The fuck, kid? That's a three-twenty-three! What's wrong with you? He pulled down a different one and shoved it into the young troll's arms, "you want a six hundred or else you might as well be coding with your head shoved up your nook. If you ever want to be a kickass coding god like me don't settle for less."  
He smirked and marched off.  
Another young troll wandered over, careful not to knock over any of the goods with his oversized horns.  
"Who was that?"  
"I dunno, but he wath _tho_ cool."  
"You, uh, want to go FLARP?"  
" _Thcrew_ that, I got thome coding to do!"

Karkat set up the husktop near the TARDIS console, and showed the Doctor how to operate it, logging him into Trollian, not before giving him some grief over his chosen name which the Doctor insisted was cool. The TARDIS was more then capable of interfacing directly with Trollian, at any point in it's timeline.  
"See, now you have a handle I can troll you, that's how I'm going to find out about what's on that sheet of paper you have been so unreasonably fucking hiding away. I can just troll you at any point in your timeline now that you have a handle so I'll make sure to troll you before yesterday."  
"Just remember, don't try to tell me what's going to happen in too much detail or I won't want to talk to you. It's very bad for time."  
"Oh yeah, like any of this makes the remotest sense. How is this time shit supposed to work anyway?"  
"Well you see, people think time is a sequence of cause-and-effect, but actually-"  
"You know what, forget it. When you start talking like that you give me a little hate-spasm."  
The Doctor grinned and tapped him on the nose, "I look forward to talking to you for the first time."  
"Urgh, can you be serious for even one moment? If we don't get this shit right then time itself will unravel, or something!"  
"Have you always been so grown-up about everything?"  
"I don't know what that means, but it sounds like you're telling me that I can actually muster up a little maturity which sounds pretty fucking much like exactly how I am and at least someone has proper priorities around here."  
"Oh I don't know," the Doctor grinned and went to the console, changing course, "there's no point being grown-up if you can't be childish once in a while. I think a wise man once said that."  
"It better fucking not have been you."  
The Doctor chuckled and brought the TARDIS in to land. "We're here."  
"What? What do you mean?"  
"I've brought you home. Just after we left in fact."  
The Doctor stood at the controls and watched him, Karkat realised they were saying goodbye.  
"But- but I don't want to go."  
"I know, but you have to."  
"Why!"  
"I told you that you have a greatness Karkat, and it's quite soon now you're going to have to fulfil it. I can't interfere with the fixed points in time and you're heading for one or two yourself."  
"But-!" He suddenly wanted to yell, "I don't want to go back! Not yet anyway, I need more time!"  
"Karkat, you have all you need. I think there are people who need you, too. The you that you are right now, the you who has work to do."  
Karkat looked around, he saw that Amy and Rory had come back into the control room in time to catch the end of the conversation. Amy bit her lip, and Rory walked up to the Doctor.  
"Come on Doctor, can't he stay a bit longer?"  
"Yes, he could stay. And maybe he'd never want to leave, or maybe he'd want to go somewhere totally different to live a life," the Doctor turned and crouched down in front of Karkat, looking him in the eye, "but you can't, Karkat."  
"Why not?"  
"Because you are Karkat Vantas, the troll who brought the last of his race together and held them together through the worst of times. You're the one they will write books about later on. I know, I read some of them. They, ah, didn't mention all the swearing."  
"Fuck... why didn't you tell me?"  
"I can't, I shouldn't even tell you that much, Karkat."  
"I have to go back, then. To all that."  
"Yes."  
Karkat marched to the door, determined to show no emotions, and opened it. "Fine. But you better get ready for the harshest fucking trolling you ever had!" He snarled.  
"I know," grinned the Doctor.  
Karkat stepped out, into his room, and looked back into the TARDIS just before the door closed. He looked like he was about to say something for a moment, but he just shook his head.

Later, Karkat sat at his own husktop and gnashed his teeth. He had been putting it off but he knew it was inevitable so he opened up Trollian, and there he was. The Doctor.

\-- carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling **legsEleven [LE]** \--  
CG: I KNOW IT'S YOU, YOU FUCK, ANSWER ME.  
CG: I WILL GIVE YOU THE LONGEST AND HARDEST TROLLING YOU HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED IN ALL YOUR LIFE. CRY ME A RIVER AND FLOAT A SHITBARGE ON IT YOU FUCK.  
CG: AND YOUR CHOICE OF NECK RETAINING COLLAR DEVICE IS RIDICULOUS.  
 **LE: hey! bow ties are cool**  
CG: ABOUT FUCKING TIME. I HAVE SO MANY THINGS I SHOULD BE DOING RIGHT NOW. I REALLY DON'T HAVE THE INFINITE RESERVES OF PATIENCE THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED TO PUT UP WITH EVEN ONE IOTA OF A FRAGMENT OF YOUR HOOFBEASTSHIT RIGHT NOW.  
CG: SO DON'T EVEN START WITH YOUR USUAL NONSENSE.  
CG: I WANT THAT TO BE UNDERSTOOD FROM THE START.  
 **LE: you sound like you know me already**  
CG: ALRIGHT SCREW YOUR THINK PAN DOWN TIGHT BECAUSE WHAT I AM ABOUT TO TELL YOU WILL COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY CRUSH YOUR REASON NODULES. YOU MIGHT WANT TO SIT DOWN AND TAKE A DEEP BREATH.  
CG: I AM SPEAKING TO YOU FROM YOUR FUTURE.  
 **LE: ah, that would explain it then**  
CG: PERHAPS YOU MISREAD MY COMMENT, OR ELSE I AM INSINUATING CONCEPTS BEYOND YOUR NARROW GRASP. I AM SPEAKING TO YOU LITERALLY FROM YOUR ACTUAL FUTURE.  
 **LE: why don't we start from the assumption that I can handle the idea without getting too upset**  
CG: I'LL TRY TO GO EASY ON YOU.  
CG: AND RESTRAIN THE NATURAL URGE TO SCREAM.  
CG: IN THE FUTURE, BY WHICH I MEAN LATER IN YOUR PERSONAL TEMPORAL PERSPECTIVE THAN WHAT YOU CONSIDER TO BE THE CURRENT MOMENT, WE WILL MEET.  
 **LE: you mean you're talking to me from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint  
LE: that might be considered  
LE: timey wimey**  
CE: I HATE YOU.  
CG: PAY ATTENTION FUCKASS, THIS IS IMPORTANT.  
 **LE: I always pay attention  
LE: thats the one thing people always say about me, that I am always paying attention to what's going on**  
CG: YEAH, WE HAVE MET, REMEMBER?  
 **LE: ah, good point, well I promise I am at least not doing too many other things at once**  
CG: I WANTED TO TELL YOU A FEW THINGS THAT I SHOULD HAVE SAID BEFORE BUT I DIDN'T. BECAUSE PAST ME IS JUST A FUCKING DOUCHENOZZLE. NOT THAT I CAN ENTIRELY BLAME ME FOR HAVING DIFFICULTY IN SEEING PAST THE GENERAL RETARDED-FIELD YOU SEEM TO SURROUND YOURSELF WITH.  
 **LE: go right ahead, I am all ears**  
CG: OKAY, WHEN YOU ASKED ME WHERE I WANTED TO GO, I PRETTY MUCH JUST SAID THE FIRST THING THAT CAME INTO MY MIND, BUT IT TURNED OUT TO BE A PRETTY GOOD IDEA DESPITE ALL THE HORRIBLE SHIT THAT HAPPENED.  
 **LE: careful, if you tell me something I think you shouldn't be telling me, this conversation will be over**  
CG: I'M TRYING TO THANK YOU, FUCKASS!  
CG: EVEN IF YOU WERE AN UNCONSCIONABLY RUDE SHIT JUST LEAVING US ALONE LIKE THAT, ME AND THE RORY-HUMAN ACTUALLY HAD A PRETTY GOOD FEELINGS JAM, I APPRECIATE THAT.  
 **LE: I think I see..... :)X**  
CG: THE FUCK IS THAT?  
 **LE: me smiling with a bow tie! I do emoticons because they are cool ;)X**  
CG: I SWEAR I WILL FIND WHATEVER IT IS IN THIS UNIVERSE YOU VALUE MOST, AND OFFER YOU A HOT STEAMING PLATE OF IT TO NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.  
CG: ANYWAY.  
CG: YOU WERE ACTUALLY PROBABLY A LITTLE BIT LESS OF A FUCKASS THEN I THOUGHT AT FIRST, AND MAYBE I SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SO HARD ON YOU ENTIRELY JUSTIFIED AS IT WAS.  
 **LE: I'm touched.**  
CG: IF PAST ME WAS ACTUALLY ABLE TO SAY SOMETHING FOR ONCE INSTEAD OF JUST SEETHING LIKE A FUCKTARDED WIGGLER IN A BAG THEN WHAT PAST ME WOULD HAVE SAID IS-  
CG: THANKYOU FOR WHAT YOU SAID. I'M STILL PRETTY FUCKING PISSED TO BE DUMPED BACK HERE LIKE THIS, BUT YOU WERE RIGHT TO PUSH. I KNOW I NEED TO BE HERE, THESE FUCKS WOULDN'T LAST A DAY WITHOUT ME. SO DON'T LET ME TALK YOU OUT OF IT- WHEN THE TIME COMES, JUST TELL ME IT'S TIME TO GO.  
 **LE: I assume this will make more sense later on?**  
CG: OF COURSE! TRY TO KEEP UP.  
 **LE: I'll do my best.  
LE: Now would you tell me why this delightful chat program has popped up out of nowhere on my TARDIS? That should be impossible.**  
CG: SUPERIOR TROLL TECHNOLOGY, FUCKASS! ENJOY!  
 **LE: You won't mind if I want to investigate what exactly is going on here, then.**  
CG: BRING IT. I'M ON AN ASTEROID ORBITING THE ALTERNIAN SYSTEM, SEE IF YOU CAN FIND ME.  
CG: JUST DO ME A FAVOUR AND DON'T TELL PAST ME THAT I'M NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO GET OUT OF THIS FUCK-VORTEX OF A LIFE.  
 **LE: I'll try to keep it under my hat!**  
CG: ONE LAST THING.  
CG: DOCTOR.  
CG: IF THERE'S ONE THING MY UNSPEAKABLE MESS OF A LIFE HAS TAUGHT ME, IT IS THIS.  
CG: A WORLD IS JUST A ROCK IN SPACE. A PEOPLE IS JUST A COLLECTION OF NAMES.  
CG: YOU HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO LIVE A LIFE, DOCTOR, AND PEOPLE WHO NEED YOU.  
CG: WHO YOU NEED, TOO.  
CG: SO PAY ATTENTION WHEN YOU'RE TOLD TO GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF AND KEEP GOING.  
 **LE: I think-  
LE: thankyou.  
LE: Whoever you are.**  
CG: YOU'LL SEE WHO I AM SOON ENOUGH, NOW GET ON WITH IT AND FIND ME.  
CG: THANK YOU, DOCTOR, FOR EVERYTHING. I'LL FIGURE OUT SOME WAY TO REPAY YOU, I HAVE SOME IDEAS.   


  
-THE END-

 

 

 

 

EXCEPT...

  
Time passed, and no one knows better then a Time Lord how it has a habit of doing that. Karkat had more then enough to keep himself busy, but he still found time to himself now and then. He would turn to his husktop, and his search.

Rory had said that the Doctor was the last of the Time Lords, but Karkat found that a little hard to believe. Any species with technology like that surely couldn't have been all wiped out, there were always exceptions to everything. He had researched the available literature on Time Lords, which amounted to next to nothing. The Doctor himself appeared in some historical records on an assortment of worlds, but was only ever mentioned as a fleeting presence if at all. As for his race, it was as though they had been plucked clean out of the universe. However, Trollian could access the entire span of any user with a trollhandle no matter how distant in time. In theory, he mused, wouldn't it be likely that sooner or later some other Time Lord would get online? Surely, given the full expanse of history and the fact that Time Lords could appear anywhere as they wished, it would be more fanciful to imagine that none of them had ever been near a husktop now and then. Surely.

\-- CURRENT carcinoGeneticist [CCG] RIGHT NOW opened a memo on TIMEY WIMEY BULLSHIT FACTORY --  
[CCG] OKAY THIS IS MY THEORY.  
[CCG] AT SOME POINT IN THE DISTANT PAST OR FUTURE SOME TIME LORDS SOMEWHERE WILL HAVE TO SEE THIS. I MEAN SOONER OR LATER IT'S GOT TO HAPPEN RIGHT?  
[CCG] SO IF ALL YOU ASSHOLES WOULD MIND SPEAKING UP.  
[CCG] PLEASE.  
[CCG] THERE'S THIS ASSHOLE CALLED THE DOCTOR WHO THINKS HE IS THE LAST OF YOU, AND I'M GOING TO PROVE HIM WRONG.  
[CCG] ALL THIS MOPING AROUND ALONE IS BULLSHIT.  
[CCG] I'LL BE HERE.  
[CCG] WAITING.  
[CCG] FUCKING COME ON THEN!  
 **FUTURE gestaeMagistus [FGM]** responded to memo.  
 **[FGM] Hello.**  
[CCG] YOU'RE KIDDING? MY FUCKING RIDICULOUS IDEA ACTUALLY WORKED?  
 **[FGM] That's right!**  
[CCG] SO YOU'RE A TIME LORD TOO? LIKE THE DOCTOR?  
 **[FGM] I am! I even knew the Doctor, a long time ago.**  
[CCG] PERFECT! WHO ARE YOU ANYWAY?  
 **[FGM] Call me  
[FGM] Mr. Saxon.**


End file.
